"This is actually just a part of the painting. It is a long scroll, a very long scroll."
Just when Xu Chuxiang was confused, he saw Professor Holt saying this while taking out many more photos from the brown suitcase.
Holt placed the photos in front of Xu Chuxiang one after another.
Xu Chuxiang temporarily suppressed his doubts and lowered his head to look at the photos carefully.
But the more she looked, the more confused the look on her face became.
Because the things painted on those photos were very strange. For example, the first photo she saw had several pairs of footprints painted on it.
Very few painters would paint this kind of thing, especially when the painter's uncanny painting skills are used to paint some of the simplest things.
This feeling was like asking her, a master of architecture, to move bricks on a construction site.
And the things painted in the other photos are even stranger.
For example, there are some huge hanging stalactites, such as some rock walls with strange patterns on them.
Because the paintings in these photos were as real as photos, Xu Chuxiang could clearly see the patterns on the rock wall. Soon after, she raised her head and asked Professor Holt with some uncertainty:
"Are these fossils?"
"Yes, it's a fossil."
Professor Holt nodded and said:
"If you put all the photos together, you will find that it is a very long scroll. Miss Xu, I have done some research on the history of your country, including the history of various fields. The long scroll painted by Shi Zibin The length is enough to rank among the top three in the history of painting in your country."
"What's on that painting?"
Xu Chuxiang didn't ask how long the scroll was. What she was more concerned about at the moment was what the whole picture looked like when put together, with many strange things painted on it.
Professor Holt was silent for a moment, then slowly said:
"I think it might be a long... cave, and..."
Professor Holt held a cigar in one hand and a photograph in the other.
Just now, he did not show the last photo to Xu Chuxiang. At this time, he finally placed the last photo in front of Xu Chuxiang.
"...and a building from your ancient China. This is the last thing drawn in the long scroll."
Xu Chuxiang looked down again and saw that the paintings in the photo were several antique attics, and the attics seemed to be located on some peak, because below the attics, several floating white clouds could be clearly seen. .
"Ms. Xu, what kind of buildings do you think these are?"
Professor Holt asked.
"This seems to be a temple, or a temple..."
Xu Chuxiang murmured while carefully observing the details of the attics. Thanks to Shi Zibin's excellent painting skills, these attics were almost indistinguishable from the real ones.
"...Well, it's not a temple, it should be a temple, a Taoist temple."
Soon after, Xu Chuxiang made a judgment.
She studied architecture at the Injili Imperial College. As the daughter of two governors of Great China, she actually had better choices, such as studying politics, economics, law, etc. After returning to China, she studied under her father's With help and support, she can naturally develop better, which is also the choice of most young people with similar identities to her.
But Xu Chuxiang chose architecture for no particular reason, just because she liked it.
This kind of love is not new to Yinjili, but existed very early on.
When she was a child, her father Xu Pingxi hired a bunch of famous teachers to teach her music, chess, calligraphy and painting, but Xu Chuxiang’s favorite was the set of building block toys her cousin brought back from the United States of America.
She was born with an interest in various buildings, so before going to Wudu to study Western architecture, Xu Chuxiang had already conducted in-depth research on Dahua's own various buildings from ancient times to the present.
At this time, Xu Chuxiang quickly determined that this was a Taoist temple through some details of the attics in the painting.
"Professor Holt, look at the eaves of these attics. They are all raised with curved curves. The style is flying and brisk, symbolizing our Taoist Dahua's pursuit of ascension and immortality... Look at its central axis again. They are all symmetrical...and those steps, either three, six, or nine. If it is a temple, the number of six or seven should be used more..."
As soon as he talked about these architectural matters, Xu Chuxiang suddenly became energetic and full of confidence.
"Miss Xu, your judgment is absolutely correct. It is a temple, perhaps a temple built by extraordinary people."
Holt nodded solemnly and said, it seems that he actually knew something for a long time. Maybe he asked Xu Chuxiang just to make sure.
"Extraordinary?"
"Yes, in the words of your country, you are an immortal."
The conversation between Xu Chuxiang and Professor Holt just now was always in the language of the Yinjili Empire. At this time, Professor Holt used a word:
Immortal.
In the language of the Yinjili Empire, this word means immortality, eternity, and immortality.
And Xu Chuxiang also understood what Professor Holt wanted to express. She smiled and shook her head and said:
"Gods in our country of China are actually just myths and legends."
Professor Holt didn't refute anything. He just took a puff of his cigar silently.
"So, Mr. Professor, you came to Chuzhou this time not to find savages, but to find immortals?"
Xu Chuxiang continued to laugh.
Professor Holt put his cigar down.
"Ms. Xu, let me tell you first the origin of these photos."
Xu Chuxiang suddenly showed a look of listening carefully.
To be honest, Xu Chuxiang's curiosity has indeed reached its peak at this time.
"I found Shi Zibin's long scroll painting in a collection room of the Imperial Museum."
Xu Chuxiang was slightly startled at first. How could a painting by a mediocre painter from Chuzhou, a country of Great China, appear five hundred years ago in a foggy city tens of thousands of miles away? However, she soon thought of something, and then a smile gradually appeared on her face. The ground disappeared.
"Two hundred and eighty-five years ago, the expeditionary forces of the Yinjili Empire and the Falan Empire broke through Jingcheng and brought back a large amount of treasures and property from the palace of the Prince of Chuzhou. Some of those trophies are now being preserved. In the Imperial Museum of Injili..."
Professor Holt's next words confirmed Xu Chuxiang's guess just now.
The Gengshen Incident...
Xu Chuxiang lowered his eyes, and his beautiful eyelashes trembled slightly.
Two hundred and eighty-five years ago, the coalition forces of Yinjili and Falan, two powerful countries in the Western Continent, divided their forces into two groups and landed at Chentangguan in the north, attacking the Imperial Capital of Great China.
The other route went up the river from Shencheng in the south and captured Jingcheng, an important town in the heart of the Central Plains of the Great China Empire.
It was precisely because of this foreign invasion that the Ji family, which had been inherited for thousands of years, completely lost control of the Great China. After lingering for 260 years, the Great China finally collapsed and Great China entered the Republic of China era. .
Shi Zibin's long scroll painting should have been kept in the Chuzhou County Prince's Palace at that time, and was then brought back to the Western Continent by the Yinjili Empire soldiers who looted the palace.
"This long scroll painting was placed in a storage room of less important collections in the Imperial Museum, and it remained dusty for many years. Those idiots in the museum did not understand the value of this painting at all."
Xu Chuxiang thought to himself that it was not entirely the fault of the staff of the Imperial Museum that they were stupid. First of all, Shi Zibin was not famous in the history of painting. There were not many people in Dahua who knew about this Xingning era painter, not to mention that he was so far away from the entire country. Injili people from mainland China.
In addition, the valuable thing about Shi Zibin's long scroll painting is that he used the technique of fine brushwork to reach the pinnacle of appearance. If it were seen by a knowledgeable person in the country of China, it would naturally be awe-inspiring and astonishing.
But in the Western Continent, there was nothing unusual about Shi Zibin's paintings, so they were thrown away in an inconspicuous place. It took more than two hundred years before Professor Holt noticed them.
"As for the reason why I found this painting, it was because I had a friend in the Imperial Museum. One day he showed me a photo and asked me if I knew what kind of fossil it was."
As he spoke, Professor Holt took out a photo from the table and held it up.
Xu Chuxiang looked up and saw the fossilized bones of a very strange animal in the photo.
Xu Chuxiang is not a biologist or an archaeologist, and she cannot tell the original appearance of the creature just by looking at the bones.
But if that skeleton fossil is connected to nine skull-like things on the same cervical vertebra, it doesn't look like a normal creature no matter how you look at it.
